Thursday, October 21, 2010

Sharp Practice - Mini Review

Sharp Practice by Too Fat Lardies is the second Napoleonic Skirmish rules set I have been raving about. You have probably figured out by now that I really like Song of Drums and Shakos and may be wondering why in the heck I'm messing around with Sharp Practice. Well, it is because they are two different animals, and they are both excellent rules for two different styles of games. I think everyone should own both sets.

Sharp Practice (SP) uses card decks to activate officers and NCOs referred to as 'Big Men", as well as a myriad of other special capabilities and random events to always keep you guessing. SP is a game that takes a lot of control away from the player and makes him respond to constantly evolving conditions during the battle. Good tactics are rewarded, bad tactics only compound the arse whooping you will get!

Like Sharp, I have only three rules that I expect from a rules set to pass my test!
1. SIMPLE. Must be fairly simple to learn and minimal book keeping if any. If a new player cannot grasp the basic idea and funtion in a Convention game in three turns the game is simply no good. Key word here is "game". I've been gaming for a long time and some historical guys just can't seem to get the fact that they are playing games with toy soldiers. "Realism" is a myth and games that claim to simulate only make for lousy games you cannot ever hope to finish. A reasonable amount of historically reasonable results can be achieved with good simple rules much easier than complex nightmares.
2. PLAYABLE. Gotta be able to finish a bloody game! If the game cannot be played in a couple of hours or less it will become a paperweight. I don't mind getting a little crazy and playing bigger, longer games, but the quick play option has to be there. You will never get new converts if you cannot finish games.
3. FLAVOR. While keeping to simple, fast play mechanics, the game should give you a good "feel" for the period and not allow the player to have God like capabilities. I like surprises, and it makes for much funner games. In Napoleonics for example, I like to see troop characteristics and I also like to see my little soldiers having some sort of sense of self preservation. It is also important that rules can be slightly modified to taste without breaking the system.

I have read the rules several times and only played four games of SP so far but I can already tell you that it abides by my rules. SP is in my toy chest for the long haul so we are taking our time to learn the rules completely, and are play testing it exhaustively. Finally we will make our tweaks and house rules. The main thing I need to completely test out is our basing system which uses multiple figures on a base while they are in close formation. This will allow us to take SP from company level to battalion level. I'm convinced it can handle it with a little thought.

Here are some photos with descriptions from one of our learning games. This is not really a batrep or a review, but just an illustration of what your games might look like if you choose to try out this excellent rules set. We've only dipped the pinky but are already having a very good time with SP.

It really gripes my arse that we were only able to mess around for about an hour. I really wanted to see where Jil's Kamikaze column was going to end up. Up to this point it had taken a bloody nose but was by no means ready to quit. With the right cards he may have been able to roll through my skirmishers and then I would need to get my close boys deployed or I'd be in trouble. SP will march again!

16 comments:

I am really impressed. Did you change the distances when you dropped it to 6mm? I have found most of the lardy rules do very well in 6mm but I have to say, Sharp Practice is the one I have not tried this with yet. I was trying to achieve what you have using 15mm. Your column looks perfect. Thanks for the inspiration.

Um, my French may be rusty, but I do have to ask what "Pas de Charge" is supposed to mean? My best translation is "No charge" (as in battery charge) or, "foot of a charge" which makes less sense....

P.S. took your advice, bought Songs of Blades and Heroes, and though I've only done a couple solo test matches, I am thrilling myself classifying all my D&D, Heroscape, and various applicable Star Wars and Heroclix figures into the system (Gammorean guards are, and always have been, fat orcs!)

Chris: I just left them the same. As long as the proportions stay the same everything works. I like longer ranges as it looks "right".

Macavity: I hope I didn't botch that, but I think it is from the 1791 Drill manual for march rate set by the drummer as Peter suggested. SOBH is a very versatile set.

Peter: Thanks for the tip, I'll have to look up and join the Sharp Practice group as I am hooked to stay. So far so good on formations, but I'm sure some stuff will creep out at us. No worries though, we are creative. I was wondering if someone would pick up on the pile of shock points lumped up front, but no, we remembered. The bridge was in the way so we just threw them down and assumed they would distribute evenly from front to rear.

Snowcat,There is actually no significance to the close rank basing in relation to SP. SP actually uses all single based figs. These were based for another game and luckily they work out in SP because it uses groups up to 12 men. I like the close rank figs all in one base at this 6mm scale, makes for very fast movement and we can deploy larger forces. It requires the use of kill markers though since we cannot remove figures.

These are based as 12 men in three ranks or 8 men in two ranks. If I remember right, the bases are like 3/4 square for the three rankers, and 3/4x1/2 for the 2 rankers.

What Miniatures Gaming is All About:

This quote was taken from a brilliant post by John Paul on the THW yahoo group.This is exactly what this hobby is all about!

The first time a new kid comes to game:

What? There's no screen? How do you... You mean I have to face my opponent and even have to talk to them. (You got a nice house here.)Heh.... What's that? Dice? How quaint. (Sure, I'll take a Coke.) Coollittle figures. You know, I've heard about army men from movies... YOU PAINT THEM YOURSELF?! (You do a good job, I could never do that.) Nice dollhouses. Hey, can I bring my Hot Wheels?

No No Go left!I think we should run through the house. (Yea, my teacher said the same thing in my class. Who do you have?) Cool, I want to loot the body... YEA! I got a shotgun. (I'd say the scene with Shelob was the scariest.) Wow, I almost died. Thanks for saving me. Why are you laughing. No, You can't have my shotgun. I guess with that pistol aimed at my face, you are going to get that shotgun. Just watch your back. (Well, my favorite show is in an hour, but I can record it. No, I'll stay.) How come we shoot the zombies up and we always get more and Jake is beating them with a baseball bat and he gets none? (Stop throwing popcorn at me...Steve...[giggle]...Don't do it Steve... [giggle-haahaaa]) Is that a grenade? OOOHH. How did I know you werein the explosion's spread.... Do I have enough room to scoot over and pick up the shotgun from his mangled body? How many more zombies did that bring in? (You got great parents. I didn't know you could play this with them.) Awesome. I just became zombie chow!

Well, that was cool! er... do you... when do you play this again? (You guys are cool to hang around with.)Can I get one of those miniatures with a shotgun.I love shotguns! Can you paint it for me? You'll show me how to paint it? Cool!

What really happens to youth when they venture forth from Video Games andget sucked into the dark vortex of wargaming. : )

John Paul

About Me

I figured it was time to change my profile as I have completely evolved as a gamer the past couple of years. I no longer describe myself as "avid" but just plain sick. Ever since getting into skirmish gaming things in my miniatures world have been just plain awesome. Glancing through my blog you will quickly figure out that I love it all; any period, any scale, and there is no telling what you will find here from day to day. My kids and their friends like to play and even my Wife will game from time to time which is kind of the ultimate achievement for any gamer. I'm blessed with fellow gamers in the Houston area which are as fanatic as myself and our biggest problem is not when we will play, but what we will play. You can find me knocking about many miniatures related sites around the web as Veloci, Sturmflieger, or LTL Dad.